Dr Keith Mitchell, chairman of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on cricket, has advocated for a professional cricket league in the region. Dr Mitchell, the Grenada prime minister, believes it is time that the relevant bodies get together and form a professional league as a means of harnessing and developing the talent of regional cricketers. "We have to invest seriously in a professional league if we hope to develop our talent," he said. Dr Mitchell said that history has shown that West Indies cricket was strongest when regional players got professional opportunities in England. However, with a reduction of those opportunities due to more stringent county cricket rules, the need to form the regional pro-league is now even greater. According to Dr Mitchell, the region should provide incentives for players with talent who want to aspire to the highest levels of their game. "You can't have a guy who has the talent to represent West Indies. and when he comes back home after a game, he's searching in the construction industry for a job, how do you expect this man to perform?" "We have to invest as individual countries in the region in the development of our cricketers and the protection of their livelihood," the Grenadian leader said. Speaking about the general performance of regional cricketers, Dr Mitchell said the region has talent but in order to fully utilise that talent, the basics of the game need to be married with the technology. "Years ago when we had school cricket at several levels.it had a lot of impact on sports in general; so we do not forget the basics but we also must twin that with the technology." "A bowler is bowling. his captain is watching and after two, three overs he could almost tell what the weaknesses are; and the computer plays these things over and over and could almost tell you exactly where you should put that ball for you to have a reasonably good chance." The prime minister said school cricket should be brought back at all levels to enable early detection and development of the talent in the region. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com